The Orb & David Gilmour - Metallic Spheres In Colour

[LooseLink]

Mr. Dr. Alex and that are remixing their 2010's Metallic Spheres album, out September 29:

This snippet sounds bouncy, but yeah, I am wondering how much David has contributed to this one this time, plus I thought Prism was going to be their last album? Oh well anyway:

"Metallic Spheres, The Orb’s 2010 collaboration with Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour has been remixed and reimagined for a reissue which will be called Metallic Spheres in Colour.

The original album featured Youth, who also produced the record and speaking about this reissue he says “The idea for Metallic Spheres In Colour, was that Alex Paterson could have done more on the first version, and he didn’t really have the opportunity because we had a philosophy of making the music like the Blade Runner soundtrack meets Wish You Were Here. So, I asked him why don’t we remix it and make it like an Orb classic? And in doing that, it’s almost like a completely different album.”

The new album is available on CD and vinyl. It has just two tracks which span around 20 minutes each and are therefore on each side of the vinyl record."

[Stock]

Well, colour me intrigued

I loved the original album (or, at least, it's concept and sound palette) but never really returned to it. Curious to hear this "remixed" album, hope they did go crazy on this one.

[mcbpete]

Here's a 5 minute extract/video

 

There's something odd I can't quite put my finger on with this video .... there's an unusually high level of detail in the CGI sets and an unusually high number of locations - but the edits/cuts don't really have much bearing on the audio. Was this video from some other project and it's been tacked on to this track ?!?

 

[purlieu]

Gilmour's lower in the mix and the drums are more interesting than the straight up pounding four-to-the-floor of the original, so it's an improvement, although I'm yet to be convinced the whole thing will sound "almost like a completely different album". Still, I'll give it a listen, I'm sure one day there'll be a new Orb album that I enjoy more than a third of. Actually, maybe I'm not.

[fumi]

I have heard this now so you guys don't need to.

Enter at your peril.

[beerwolf]

Gilmour is a legend in my eyes. He's never praised in the same light as Page, Hendrix because his style was more subtle, though his solos on Time and Comfortably Numb and riffs on Echoes and Sheep (etc etc etc) are just stunning. And Live At Pompeii. However I'm aware that his best work was a long, long time ago. Maybe the live version of Learning To Fly. Maybe some stuff on Division Bell is okay. Always found The Orb a bit cheesy as well. So I won't enter.

It's the reason why I've never listened to 13 by Black Sabbath, though some people say it's not bad. Some things are best left alone.

Edited September 28, 2023 by beerwolf

[PurpleMoustache]

Just finished this. Better than the original in every conceivable way. Jaw dropping Atmos mix. I highly recommend it, even to those Orb agnostic at this point (and I wouldn’t blame you, tbh)

[purlieu]

Just giving this a go. First couple of minutes are nice, very Orby collage ambient style.

Then absolutely fuck all happens for ten minutes. Just a loop with almost no variation. It lacks the hypnotic, atmospheric feel of some of the longer early Orb tracks, so just sounds completely half finished (I had this feeling about a lot of No Sounds Are Out of Bounds). Second half of the first side is stronger, emphasis on the synths, some field recordings, percussion loops. Still missing 'something' but does have a bit of a '90s Orb vibe.

Second side is actually very different, Middle Eastern (?) instruments, kind of jazzy drums. Then there's a bit of a 'stick loads of stuff into some reverb' ambient section with loads of samples and stuff, that leads into some synth strings that I remember from the original album, which is... ok? Fairly unremarkable ambient, really.

It's definitely a big improvement on the original Metallic Spheres. There are plenty of samples and weird bits which are very Orby, it doesn't have that dull four-to-the-floor beat running through the whole thing, Gilmour is barely present, and the new sections (particularly the first half of side two) are pretty strong. It's not some lost Orb classic but it's probably the most consistently listenable thing Alex has done since Chill Out, World. Weirdly, it might actually be the best non-Fehlmann Orb album since the '90s, but that's obviously a very low bar. 

[beerwolf]

Odd. I'm reading a thread on another music forum (a place I've been banned from 3 times lol, unfortunately I've ran out of email addresses otherwise I'm sure it would be 4 ) of their top 3 Guitar players. And Gilmour is mentioned plenty of times. Strange as it's a place notorious for hating Pink Floyd. I think if you are a Floyd fan Dave will be your favourite. I guess we all know Hendrix is the great, and though I do love Electric Ladyland, he never put down records like Dark Side Of The Moon, Wish You Were Here, Meddle, Animals. But then he did kick the bucket pretty early on. Hmmm I think I'm rambling on....

Edited September 30, 2023 by beerwolf

[Rubin Farr]

https://metallicspheres.io

[kuniklo]

On 9/30/2023 at 4:18 AM, purlieu said:

It's not some lost Orb classic but it's probably the most consistently listenable thing Alex has done since Chill Out, World. Weirdly, it might actually be the best non-Fehlmann Orb album since the '90s, but that's obviously a very low bar. 

I thought the first Chocolate Hills LP was almost as good as Chill Out, World.

[Rubin Farr]

tried the app, wicked cover 

[chenGOD]

It's not bad, but it prompted me to go back and listen Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld....you forget how easy it is to lose yourself in that album. Spanish Castles in Space....every time.

[zazen]

On 9/6/2023 at 3:02 PM, mcbpete said:

Here's a 5 minute extract/video

 

There's something odd I can't quite put my finger on with this video .... there's an unusually high level of detail in the CGI sets and an unusually high number of locations - but the edits/cuts don't really have much bearing on the audio. Was this video from some other project and it's been tacked on to this track ?!?

 

I thought it fit quite well once the rocket thing took off. Looks to me this was made using lots of AI/procedurally generated 'sets'. Not much is animated as such, apart from that one shot of the guy pressing the button, and the sphere playing the guitar, so its all mostly stationary and the things that do move (like the rocket) dont animate as they move. The motion is all from the camera and transformations turning scenes inside out and so on. But they do some quite trippy stuff from that. So its like a series of frozen tableaus but with camera moving and tableaus being transformed. Interesting, and probably relatively cheap given the size/number/complexity of the sets.

[chenGOD]

On 9/30/2023 at 6:18 AM, purlieu said:

it might actually be the best non-Fehlmann Orb album since the '90s, but that's obviously a very low bar. 

I'd give that to Sedibus and the Orb - The Heavens. Given that Sedibus is really just the Orb anyways (LX and Andy Falconer).

[purlieu]

I could never get into the side-project albums, thought they were alright but pretty bland. Maybe I'll revisit them one day.

[mcbpete]

5 hours ago, chenGOD said:

I'd give that to Sedibus and the Orb - The Heavens. Given that Sedibus is really just the Orb anyways (LX and Andy Falconer).

Nice - discogs mentions Andy was '91-'94 era Orb so definitely covers a good Orb period

[chenGOD]

2 hours ago, purlieu said:

I could never get into the side-project albums, thought they were alright but pretty bland. Maybe I'll revisit them one day.

This one is definitely worth the time - classic Orb. LX put out another one right around the same time (OSS & The Orb) which was definitely forgettable.

2 hours ago, mcbpete said:

Nice - discogs mentions Andy was '91-'94 era Orb so definitely covers a good Orb period

Absolutely - was a pleasant surprise, hopefully they'll put out another one.

 

[purlieu]

Oh yeah, I remember this one. It's not too bad. First track has some nice textures. Didn't really excite me, though.